Off the cuff: That win over UCLA was, as R.J. Davis said, one of the two most intense Carolina games of the year. We all know the other one - the win at Coach K's final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Should the Tar Heels get by the Saint Peter's BLMers and Duke gets by Arkansas, the game of the century would be in the NCAA semi-finals with Carolina playing Duke. That just might be too much. If they ever did play in the Final Four, it should be the final game. Duke should have the edge with the revenge factor and the win it for Coach K thing. So, Carolina fans might be rooting for Arkansas Saturday or ordering blood pressure medicine if both UNC and Duke win. Older Tar Heel fans remember Coach McGwire's Marquette team beating Carolina in the final game in his last season. They likely don't want that scenario again. But first the Tar Heels have to get by a Saint Peter's team that beat Kentucky, which crushed Carolina early in the year, and Purdue, which handled the Heels also early in the year, to get to the Elite 8. UNC coach Hubert Davis got a bit testy about a question regarding the early season losses. He pointed out that the Tar Heels had won nine of their last 10 games and 15 of their last 18 games and here we are still talking about games in December and January. The Tar Heels have come a long way since 20-plus point losses and a home loss to lowly Pitt. Armando Bacot said the Carolina players remained confident and never worried. "We knew we could make a run," he said. "We never thought we were a bad team." Carolina has a lot of offensive weapons: Love, Bacot, Manek and Davis. Any of them could explode on a given night. And the Heels are a good rebounding team. Plus, they have a player in Leaky Black who can lockdown opposing team's top scorers. There isn't much depth and if the shots aren't falling or if someone gets in foul trouble, the Heels could lose. Saint Peter's would like to slow down the Tar Heels. UCLA was able to do it for a half but Saint Peter's will have to do it for a whole game. They've done it so far but if the Tar Heels can score 70, they'll be in good shape even though this is the first game of the tournament - except maybe against Marquette - that they'll be the favorite. It's time - probably past time - for the Saint Peter's Cinderella story to end. Carolina fans probably feel like this Tar Heel team is a Cinderella story also after low expectations. Saint Peter's has already helped the Tar Heels in this tournament with the win over Kentucky. With the win over UCLA, the Tar Heels now have tied Kentucky for the most NCAA Tournament wins all time with 129 victories. |
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